1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical fiber which emits nonlinear light such as supercontinuum light or idler light generated based on a nonlinear optical effect caused by the incidence of an optical pulse having a high peak power.
2. Related Background Art
Along with the development of optical communication techniques, demand has arisen for light sources having large wavelength widths. As a technique associated with such light sources, generation of supercontinuum (SC) light as pulse light having a large wavelength width upon incidence of an optical pulse having a high peak power on an optical nonlinear medium has received a great deal of attention.
In recent years, experiments on generation of SC light using an optical fiber (to be also referred to as an SC fiber hereinafter) as a nonlinear medium have been made and reported. References 1 to 5 associated with SC light are as follows:
Reference 1: Mori et al.: '92 Fall Conference of the Institute of Electronic, Information, and Communication Engineers, C-255, pp. 4-277
Reference 2: Mori et al.: '93 Fall Conference of the Institute of Electronic, Information, and Communication Engineers, B-920, pp. 4-161
Reference 3: T. Morioka et al.: ELECTRONICS LETTERS, Jul. 7, 1994, Vol. 30, No. 14, pp. 1,166-1,168
Reference 4: T. Morioka et al.: OFC' 96, PD21, 1996
Reference 5: T. Morioka et al.: ELECTRONICS LETTERS, Jun. 22, 1995, Vol. 31, pp. 1,064-1,066